Human Computer Interaction
What is it all about ...
Fons J. Verbeek
LIACS, Imagery & Media
LECTURE 1
INTRODUCTION TO HCI
PRINCIPLES & KEY CONCEPTS
September 1, 2014
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Content
• What is HCI
• Historical context
• What are the scientific disciplines involved
• Interaction & Interactive Systems
• 1st Key concept: Usability
• Systems
• Examples
• Why are we teaching this course ...
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Human Computer Interaction
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Human Computer Interaction
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What is it about ...
• Humans – Working
– Routines-Workflows
– Capabilties
• Machines– Used
– Mode of Operation
– Possibilities ~ Limitations
• INTERFACE, – Man-Machine Interaction
– Human-Computer Interaction
– Embedded Systems
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Nearly half of entire software development effort relates to the user interface.
(Myers and Rosson, 1992)
It is about system development
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• This statement is still very true
• Not only user interface
• Interaction Architecture, Product Design
• Connectivity
• Service Design
Human Computer Interaction• As a Science
– Methods
– Formalisms
– Relations and Overlap diciplines
– Measurement
• As a Product
– Recipes
– Design
– Technology
– Measurement
• Strategies for Development
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Early Human Computer Interaction
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Beginnings – Computing in 1945
• Harvard Mark I– ASCC: IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (aka Mark 1)
• 55 feet long, 8 feet high, 5 tons
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What Interactions did we See ...
• Mechanical
• Poor feedback
• Specialist use
• Process control
• Calculations
• No intention to address the mass market
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What is HCI ...
• Early computers: extremely difficult to use
– large & expensive
– by comparison: “people time” (labour) cheap
– used by specialists
– no knowledge about how to make use easier
• Today (This era)
– None of these conditions hold
– Development of PC’s major landmark
• Shift to other interaction paradigms
– Small – handheld - Devices
– Robots
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• Batch processing
• Timesharing
• Networking (1972 1st email)
• Graphical display
• Microprocessor
• WWW
• Ubiquitous Computing
• Grid/Clouds Computing
• Human Robot Interaction
• Tablet/Table Top Computing
• 1950’s
• 1960’s
• 1970’s
• 1980’s
• 1990’s
• 1995’s
• This era …
Interaction Paradigms
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Initial outlook of human interaction
• Wide acceptance of computers (as of 1980ties)
• Consequence:
– Computers must be well-designed
– Interactions must be well-designed
• Users should not have to think about use
– Intuitive
– Logical responses
– Safe
• Two crucial concepts
– Design
– Interaction
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Not thinking about its use …
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• For example compare:
– CD-players
– Cars
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Interactions with Small Devices
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Imagine what these devices can do compared to Mark I
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Future directions in HCI
• Human Robot Interaction
• Human Android Interaction
• Whole new range of interactions
Japan 2005, by Hiroshi Ishiguro, Osaka University.
Q1
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Machine Personal Relations
• Robots get more human
– Android
– Geminoid
– Ubiquitous phenomena
• Interaction will be more human
– Emotive respons
– Personal relations (e.g. Mariage ...)
– “If the alternative is that you are lonely and sad and miserable,
is it not better to find a robot that claims to love you and acts
like it loves you?”
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Geminoid HI-1
David Levy
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What Interactions did we See ...
• Sensor based
• Intention of rich feedback
• Specialist use
• Multi-purpose
• Intention to address the mass market
• Ubiquitous
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Design: Interdisciplinary Field
• HCI combines knowledge and methods
associated with professionals including:
– Computer Scientists
– Psychologists
• Experimental, Educational, Social and Industrial
– Designers
• Instructional and Graphical
– Technical Writers
– Human Factors and Ergonomics Experts
– Anthropologists and Sociologists
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Multi-disciplinarity in HCI
Booth, 1989, Preece et al, 2002; Zhang & Li 2004
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Computer Science
CognitivePsychology
Social & Organizational
Psychology
Ergonomics
ArtificialIntelligence
GraphicsDesign
Sociology
HCI
Disciplines contributing to HCI
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Development of HCI
• Beyond and more than system’s capabilities
• 1970s: notion of User-Interface arises
• Also known as Man-Machine Interface
– “those aspects of the system that the user comes in contact with” [Moran, 1981]
– “input language for user, an output language for machine and a protocol for interaction” [Chi,1985]
– Man-Machine Interface: implies gender bias
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• Companies started to call their products:
– “user-friendly”
• In practice:
– Just tidy up the screens
– Make them more aesthetically pleasing
– No Design decisions nor Interaction plan
• Meanwhile:
– research focus on capabilities/limitations of people
– different thing!
– mostly psychological factors
Early concepts in HCI
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Design – Capabilties - Humans
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Donald A. Norman - Psychologist
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Poet Doet
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User Friendly
• What is User Friendly ?
• Can we measure it ?
• Criteria adhering to some standard ?
• Prototyping, Prototyping styles
• Usability, Usability criteria
• Evaluations, Evaluation techniques
• All are based in getting the User involved!
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Definitions of HCI
• A workable definition is:
“a set of processes, dialogues and actions through
which a human employs and interacts with a
computer” (comment: visa versa ?)
• A focus on the research themes:
“a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation,
and implementation of interactive computing
systems for human use and with the study of
major phenomena surrounding them”
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Dissect HCI definition
• Human, – Users, single, group working together, sequence
– User(s) tries to complete a task.
• Computer,– Technology, not just Desktop computer
– Systems:• Large-scale computers,
• Process control,
• Embedded systems.
• Interaction,– Communication, direct/indirect
– Dialogue + feedback/batch
– Task oriented
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• Computing paradigms have shifted
– Early computing had no end users.
– “end users” are extremely important
– Natural focus is on the needs and capabilities of
these end users
– Interface Design
– Interaction Design
• “Nearly half of entire software development effort
relates to the user interface.” [Myers and Rosson, 1992]
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Development Attitude
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Design (1)
• ‘What is design?
It’s where you stand with a foot in two worlds –
the world of technology and the world of people
and human purposes – and you try to bring the
two together’. Mitch Kapor (1996)
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Design (2)
• The term ‘design’ refers to:
both to the creative process of specifying
something new and to the representations
that are produced during the process.
• In Design:
both problem and solution need to evolve
during the design process; rarely complete
specification before some design work has
been done. Ergo: it is an interactive process.
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Design and Interactive Systems (1)
• Interactive system:
• Term used to describe the technologies that
interactive system designers work with.
• Term intends to cover components, devices,
products and software systems that are primarily
concerned with processing information.
• Things that deal with the transmission, display,
storage or transformation of information that
people can perceive.
• Devices and systems that respond dynamically to
people’s actions.
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Design and Interactive Systems (2)
• Examples
– Mobile phones:
transmit, store and transform information
– Websites:
store and display information and respond to
people’s actions
– Computer game controllers
dynamic response to actions
– Interactive Installations
transmit information, generate dynamic response
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People and Technologies• People and interactive systems are different:
this entails the fundamental challenge for
interactive systems designers is to deal with.
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Interface• The interface to an interactive system is all those parts of the
system with which people come into contact with; physically, perceptually and conceptually.
• Physically• Pressing buttons, moving levers
• Interactive device might respond by providing feedback
• Perceptually• Display things on a screen which we can see
• Make noises which we can hear.
• Conceptually• Trying to work out what it does
• What we should be doing.
• Messages/Indicators designed to help us do this.
• The interface consists of• Input
• Output
• HCI needs a (conceptual) model for this
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HCI: disaster stories
1988 :
Iran Air Flight 655 shot down by USS Vincennes
• F-14?? - 290 casualties
• Conclusion: ‘Aegis had provided accurate data.
The crew had misinterpreted it.’
• Different radar screens displayed different aspects
of airplane
• Correlating information was difficult
• Vital data cluttered by trivial data
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Poor interface design
1. Increased mistakes in
• data entry
• system operation
2. Inaccessible functionality
3. User frustration
• low productivity and/or
• under-utilisation
4. System failure because of user rejection
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Software Quality (ISO 9126)
Metrics and Evaluation
– Functionality
– Reliability
– Usability
– Efficiency
– Maintainability
– Portability
– PM Accessibility (sometimes relevant, not ISO 9126)
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Definition of Usability (Nielsen 2003)
• Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.
• The word ‘usability’ also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.
• Consequently, usability testing requires interaction with representative users!
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Usability Components
• Learnability
– Ease of learning the system, i.e. the basic tasks
– Skills retained over time (also Memorability)
• Throughput (also Efficiency)
– Speed of task performance
– Low user error rate
• Flexibility
– Suitability for intended user expertise
– Can system be customised?
• Attitude (also Satisfaction)
– User subjective satisfaction with system
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• Usability goals (criteria = objective)• effectiveness, efficiency, learnability, safety, etc.
• User experience goals (quality = subjective)• fun, motivating, aesthetically pleasing, supportive of
creativity, rewarding, helpful, satisfying, etc.
• Sometimes there are conflicts
• “10 minute rule?”• optimize what the user already knows…(Nelson 1980)
• use the innate knowledge of the user (group) to learn the software (study workflow)
• not for complex systems
Usability & Goals
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User Activities - Capabilities
• Activities
– Physical resources
• Devices that support interaction
– Cognitive resources
• Support of cognitive functions
• Memory
– Affective resources
• Pleasing
• Intelligent use of color and graphics
• Activities are used to understand “Human”
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Usability & Transparency
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Relationship between
• user’s goals
• required actions
• results
must be meaningful, not arbitrary
ORDER of ACTIONS!
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• Older people make much less use of ATMs
• 24 years : average 7 visits to an ATM per month
• Use drops off among those over 45
• 65+ years : two-thirds NEVER use an ATM
• Senior citizens often put off by ATMs
they find the machines
complicated, inconvenient and intimidating.
• Buttons that did not line up with commands
• Dimly lit screens hard to read in the glare of
daylight
• Sometimes confusing menu choices
Source: http://cnn.com/TECH/9712/04/t_t/atms.seniors/index.htmlReporting on research by W. Rogers and A. Fisk, Georgia Institute of Technology
Problems with ATMs
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Problems with ATM’s (Continued)
• Researchers + banks expected ATMs to be intuitively
easy to use
• Testing among senior citizens found only 20 percent
correct operation
• Usability suggestions:
• Simpler on-screen instructions
• More "undo" buttons
• Banks should provide training for any customers who need it
• remark a "large percentage" of people surveyed said
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Learn how to use it ...
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Improvements with new Technology
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Touch screen technology.
Has to be taught !
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Research machines 1950s Mathematicians Machine reliabilityScientists users do programming
Mainframes 1960s Data-processing Users of output (business & professionals managers) grow1970s disenchanted with delays,
costs and lack of flexibility
Minicomputers 1970s Engineering and Users must still do mustother non-computer programming; usability professionals becomes a problem
Microcomputers 1980s Almost anyone Usability is the major problem
Internet (WWW) 2000s Almost anyone Usability is big businessShackle, 1991
Importance of Usability
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HCI has economic value ($, €, £)
Think about, strong competition on:
• Operating Systems
• Phones / Tablet Systems / Portable Devices
• Internet Browsers
• Word Processors
• Web-editing systems
• Photo-editing systems
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Beyond standard computing ...
• Control in modern cars - navigation systems
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Tesla, car-console; How well tested ?
Direct and Indirect Interaction
Review #1
• What is HCI about
• Design - Interaction
• HCI is multi-disciplinary
• Different interaction paradigms
• Different systems
• Different user groups
• Design for the user: User Centered Design
• Usability is a key concept
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Aim – Approach for this Course• Learn the major principles of HCI /Interaction
– Cognetics
– Affordance/Visability
– Usability
• Learn how people think, react, acquire
– Perception
– Cognetics
• Learn how to evaluate a system
– Development track
– Envisioning, Prototyping, Evaluating
– Research Based Approach – Empirical !
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Next Lectures
• Thursday September 4th 11.15-13.00
Huygens building, Room 106/107 1st floor
• Monday September 8th , No Lecture
• Thursday September 11th 11.15-13.00
Huygens building, Room 106/107 1st floor
• Monday September 16th 11.15-13.00
Huygens building, Room 106/107 1st floor
See schedule hci.liacs.nl
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